La Ciccia Restaurant Review

: "La ciccia" means "baby fat" or, as Italian native Lorella Degan puts it, "sweet fat." Count on acquiring a few ounces of it at the thriving neighborhood restaurant she co-owns with her husband, Sardinian chef Massimiliano Conti. Together the couple charms an eager crowd of regulars in the small, pool-blue dining room where conversation reaches a boisterous tempo (partly thanks to a fabulous wine list, heavy in Sardinian Vermentino) and no one is ever rushed. Conti's beloved island is far enough culturally and geographically from Italy to have its own language; the food is simple, seasonal, sea-salty and saffron-kissed, with a traditional penchant for earthy flavors as well as oceanic influences. Al dente wafers of carrot, potato and radish bolster a seafood salad, served lemony, at room temperature, and lively with tender squid. Wafers of cauliflower make a surprising, sophisticated appearance atop rich "spaghittusu" pressed with bottarga---a "poor man's caviar" made from mullet roe. Sensuous, salted pools of olive oil collect at the bottom of each plate to be sopped up by hunks of bread; whether they choose the house mozzarella, house-cured salumi, mint-braised tuna or lamb, diners inevitably leave here tasting the sea on their lips.